DVD Review
Publisher: Columbia
Tue, 25 January 2005
by: Tyz
There is not a big price difference between Hellboy – The Director’s Cut and the basic one disc package. For an extra ten bucks you get a another two discs worth of special features, a mini-comic, a reproduction of Rasputin’s journal, a limited edition “Senitype” and ten minutes of extra footage.
My advice is pick-up the one disc edition, and then use the ten bucks you saved to go and buy beer.
Don’t get me wrong, the film itself is fantastic. Guillermo Del Toro has done a great job bringing Mike Mignola’s cult-classic comic to the screen. It is simply the special features that let this package down. The only thing that adds anything to the experience is the mini-comic of the fantastic story The Corpse, but let’s face it – you can buy the full size version at any comics store. As for the extra ten minutes of film, let me put it this way – you wouldn’t have missed it if it had have stayed on the cutting room floor.
One of the special features is a question and answer session from a comics convention. It is shot on home video and is mostly just Del Toro sucking up to the audience and saying how much he loves Mike Mignola. Another special feature is the actors DVD commentary. This is a two hour static shot of four actors, with the movie showing in a small window in the corner – YAWN. There is also a documentary on the making of the film but it is very disjointed, jumping from scene to scene. This takes away the sense of story that you need in order to connect with these “making of” docos. It is also very, very long.
But to happier things. The film tells the story of that big, red brute Hellboy. Born to be the key to the end of the world, Hellboy has decided to walk a different path. As the cornerstone of the Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defence, Hellboy is one of the good-guys, defending the populace from the things that go bump in the night. But his origins have come back to haunt him with the resurrection of Grigory Rasputin (yes, that guy) who wants to finish what he began 50 years ago – the apocalypse. Can Hellboy deny his destiny and save the world? Well we’re still here aren’t we?
Del Toro’s script has given the comic book characters depth, making them interact in ways that their creator (Mignola) had never imagined. Love triangles and father-son relationships are explored in Del Toro’s version of Hellboy’s origin.
Ron Perlman was born to play HB. His imposing size and demeanour, tempered with his ability to convincingly play the “soft” parts (see Beauty & the Beast the TV series and The City of Lost Children) gives the Hellboy character the three dimensions that it needs to pull off a big screen debut. The prosthetics, make-up and lighting departments have done a great job, making Perlman look the part, and this has allowed the actor to relax into the role. The rest of the cast gives solid performances, allowing Perlman to strut around painted red and not look like a bad Halloween outfit. To those people interested in the casting, yes it is David Hyde Pierce doing the voice of Abe Sapien – he just doesn’t seem to appear in the credits anywhere.
The special effects do the job, but are nothing spectacular for a sci-fi/fantasy film. These days if something doesn’t at least look 90% real, then you are paying your 3D animators too much. One thing that did irk me was the fact that quite often the Hellhound looked like a guy in a rubber suit crawling around on the floor. When this happens I get distracted from the film because I’m wondering if it is hurting the bloke inside’s knees. Apparently the guy in the suit is an expert at animalistic movement – maybe he was having a bad day?
Anyway, you should definitely check out this film.
by: Tyz
More articles by Tyz
It’s a great introduction to the Hellboy world and a whole lot of fun. | |
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